Quotes About Pessimism

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
― Winston Churchill

“The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.”
― James Branch Cabell, The Silver Stallion

“You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down”
― Charles Chaplin

“If you expect the worst, you'll never be disappointed.”
― Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key

“What people forget is a journey to nowhere starts with a single step, too.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor

“A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.”
― George Bernard Shaw

“You know how both life and porno movies end. The only difference is life starts with the orgasm.”
― Chuck Palahniuk

“Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists.”
― Thomas L. Friedman

“I'm not absolutely certain of the facts, but I rather fancy it's Shakespeare who says that it's always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Carry on, Jeeves

“The world’s bumper sticker reads: Life sucks, and then you die. Perhaps Christian bumper stickers should read: Life sucks, but then you find hope and you can’t wait to die.”
― Ted Dekker, The Slumber of Christianity: Awakening a Passion for Heaven on Earth

“If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others.”
― Philip K. Dick

“No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse. (Apr 2007 Gen Conf)”
― Jeffrey R. Holland

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
― W.B. Yeats, The Collected Poems

“A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.”
― Antonio Gramsci, Gramsci's Prison Letters

“When things are at their blackest, I say to myself, 'Cheer up, things could be worse.' And sure enough, they get worse.”
― Robert Lynn Asprin

“If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little.”
― Mark Twain

“I will be the first to admit that I am a pessimist by nature. It is, after all, the wisest way to be. We pessimists have everything to gain, whereas optimists have a fifty-fifty chance of being disappointed.”
― Tamar Myers, As the World Churns

“One can only tolerate the absolute idiocy of Man for so long before bringing out the bat.”
― Dean Hale

“Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us.”
― Stephen Colbert

“Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that's not true. Some smaller countries are neutral. ”
― Robert Orben

“The nice thing about being an empty-headed pessimist is that that your glass is only half air.”
― Bauvard, Evergreens Are Prudish

“Sometimes fiction is more easily understood than true events. Reality is often pathetic.”
― Young-ha Kim, I Have the Right to Destroy Myself

“School prepares you for the real world... which also bites.”
― Jim Benton

“Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.”
― Robertson Davies

“If you reach for the stars, you just might land on a decently sized hill.”
― Stuart Hill, The Cry of the Icemark

“I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will.”
― Clint Eastwood

“Should I go up one flight of stairs and then come back down, or should I go down one flight of stairs and then come back up? Same destination, same distance, same amount of work, but two different paths. Who knows, I might find love on one path. Probably the path I don’t choose. 
”
― Jarod Kintz, The Titanic would never have sunk if it were made out of a sink.